After the main character who took the blame retired, the female lead quit.

Suddenly, the red-haired man's expression brightened, the flames in his hands intensified, and he immediately cheered.

"The back is empty; there must be some treasure hidden there..."

Using their fire magic, Yang Huagu and his group spent a lot of effort burning a path through a wall of ice crystals.

The ancient tree froze, its roots connected to the ground, encompassing a large area that was almost entirely frozen into a massive iceberg.

If it weren't for the fact that Yanghua Valley was skilled in fire magic, they might not have been able to create this path from the outside world to the base of the ancient tree.

The journey was winding and circuitous, requiring them to both clear a path and guard against ice wall collapses, which was quite exhausting for them.

As the ice wall before them shattered, the space in front of them suddenly opened up. At first, it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. After walking several dozen steps, it suddenly opened up into a bright and spacious area. This perfectly describes their current situation.

Chapter 46, The Honest and Simple-minded Warrior

The scene before me was different from the narrow and enclosed spaces I had searched for along the way. Instead, it was spacious, bright, and hollow, with an ice sculpture three or four meters high standing in the center.

The ice sculpture is tall and imposing, with a beast that resembles a deer but is not quite a roe deer, with a dragon's head, leopard's claws, crocodile armor, tortoise shell patterns, a horse's body, and a scorpion's tail. Its appearance is ferocious. On the other side sits a warrior dressed in armor, holding a thick, orange-yellow halberd, and with a square sword at his waist.

The ice sculpture stared in disbelief. Before being frozen, it seemed to be waving a weapon in its hand, but judging from the looks of it, it was probably killed in a single exchange.

"So majestic! So heroic! What a fine soldier..."

A disciple from Yanghua Valley praised it a few times, then mustered up his courage and stepped forward to tap it. His knuckles made a crisp sound as they touched the ice.

Lifelike, yet utterly lifeless.

After confirming several times that the object in front of him was inanimate, he relaxed. Then, his eyes darted around and landed on the square, shimmering sword at the back of the ice sculpture, which gleamed with a radiant light under the crystal-clear ice.

Peng!

The flames burned, about to burn the ice sculpture in order to melt the ice and retrieve the sword.

"Do not act rashly!"

At the critical moment, a large hand reached out and grasped the disciple's wrist. The flames that had been burning flickered and then slowly went out.

"Yes, senior brother." Upon seeing the newcomer, the disciple who lit the fire hurriedly responded and withdrew the spell he was casting.

The one who intercepted them was the red-haired, brown-eyed disciple. He cautiously narrowed his eyes, a flash of fire appearing in his chaotic pupils, as he looked around.

"The secret realm is dangerous, so we should be careful. Although it is an inanimate object, it would be bad if we triggered some hidden mechanism or if it was deliberately placed here to lure people in."

This ice sculpture is standing guard here, like a gatekeeper, which is quite strange. Perhaps there's a treasure it's protecting inside...

His gaze fell on the area behind the ice sculpture, where there was a curtain of ice, but it wasn't completely sealed off, revealing a dark corner.

It seems they've found the right place; behind this ice curtain should be the ancient tree that reaches the sky outside.

Ha... What are those relics and treasures outside? You must know that the most important thing about the Phoenix Hill Secret Realm is the phoenix!

Phoenix essence, phoenix feathers...

Each of these would be a precious item if taken out into the outside world, and could fetch an astronomical price.

Phoenixes only perch on parasol trees, so there must be many phoenixes hiding inside this ancient parasol tree.

Of course, there are risks, but the opportunities are also considerable.

Faced with fire-immune monsters outside, they had no choice...

With this thought, the red-haired man's eyes gradually hardened. He waved his hand, staring at the ice sculpture, and shouted:

"Let's go! Go around this ice sculpture and head inside."

As soon as he finished speaking, click!

The ice curtain shattered with a sound, and a white-haired woman walked out from it, causing the group to pause in their tracks.

The woman was beautiful, her body was pure white, like a snow sprite carved from ice crystals. Her silvery eyes glanced at the group from Yanghua Valley in front of her, her snow-white eyelashes, each one distinct, trembled slightly, like the wings of a snow-white butterfly.

…………

Flames raged, but Long Wanyan, carrying Xiao Yu and Li Yunshang, dodged and weaved, managing not to get a single bit of the sticky flames on her.

However, most of the cultivators they encountered along the way died.

As the white crane with its sharp beak carried the old man across a mound, a streak of fire suddenly appeared, grabbing his ankle. The crane struggled against it, but managed to free half of his body, while the remaining lower limbs were scorched by the flames and turned to ashes.

The white crane's mournful cry echoed for a long time, yet it stubbornly clung to its half-dead body and flew forward.

The man sitting prostrate in the black coffin was originally fine, but he was dragged down by a disciple of the Flying Sword Sect. He fell onto the coffin, slowed down, and the two of them were swept backward and fell.

Before the flames engulfed everything, Xiao Yu, with his sharp eyes, vaguely saw two dark tentacles emerge from the black coffin, dragging the white-robed man and the reckless Flying Sword Sect disciple into the coffin.

The coffin was tightly closed and disappeared into the circle of fire.

The burly man carrying the girl below was still holding on, managing to keep moving forward, though his strides were far fewer than before.

The female cultivator in the pink floral gauze dress was fine, but after a while, she started to feel a bit tired, sweating profusely. Her thin gauze dress became soaked, clinging to her body and revealing her slender and alluring waist.

She abandoned her desire to show off her skills, stopped using the extremely energy-consuming technique, and instead raised a strangely shaped burning paper umbrella, using it to float and move quickly through the air.

It was clearly a magical artifact obtained from a secret realm.

Xiao Yu's gaze swept past Qu Rao's figure and landed on the flaming paper umbrella. The umbrella-shaped magical artifact reminded him of a talisman umbrella in the system shop that cost a lot of money, and he was somewhat tempted.

But then he thought, it wouldn't look very good for a grown man to use a paper umbrella, so it would be better to learn a gun technique from Long Wanyan.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu felt a tightness around his neck. Looking down, he saw a bright red rope that had somehow wrapped around his neck like a suffocating python.

"Senior Brother Yu..."

He turned his neck and happened to see Li Yunshang staring at him with a gloomy expression and dull eyes, her eyes filled with jealousy.

It seems he was so engrossed in staring at the woman's paper umbrella that he was caught red-handed by Li Yunshang, who had nothing better to do.

Xiao Yu stiffened as he was stared at. Li Yunshang's eyes darted around, and her gaze fell on the woman's white gauze dress that clung to her body and was translucent.

"Showing off, huh! The disciples of the Lily Sect have no shame. When we get there, I'll strip you of these clothes and put them on for you. I'm sure my senior brother will also... Oh!"

Li Yunshang muttered to herself in a gloomy tone, but suddenly her words came to an abrupt halt.

He detached himself from Long Wanyan's waist, his body tumbling in the air. Fortunately, the red rope was still wrapped around Xiao Yu's neck, and with a pull, he swung back like Spider-Man swinging on a web.

"Cough cough..."

Xiao Yu's neck suddenly tightened, gripping him tightly, while at the same time Li Yunshang's voice, filled with lingering fear, came from the other side:

"You damn woman, what were you doing just now? I almost fell into the ring of fire!!!"

Faced with Li Yunshang's anger, Long Wanyan's voice remained calm and unchanging: "Behave yourself. If you act up again, next time it won't be as simple as just letting go. You'll be the same."

Xiao Yu knew perfectly well who she was referring to in the following words. Perhaps the red rope around Li Yunshang's neck when she returned was also a deliberate scheme to make Xiao Yu suffer this blow. Upon closer examination, the reason might be related to his indiscriminate glances at female cultivators earlier.

Li Yunshang stopped talking, and Xiao Yu also withdrew his wandering eyes. The two of them were immediately subdued.

After all, the power of life and death of the two was entirely in Long Wanyan's hands. In fact, among the cultivators in this group, Long Wanyan seemed to have a family to support, carrying Xiao Yu and his two burdens.

However, he walked steadily all the way without showing any signs of fatigue. He even had the leisure to punish Xiao Yu and Li Yunshang in a calm and easy manner, which was in stark contrast to the previous ones. The physical enhancement brought by the second dragon transformation was almost geometrically increased compared to the first dragon transformation.

After running down, he was only slightly out of breath. After the commotion, his body inevitably paused for a moment, and he fell behind the burly man who had come to embrace the girl.

That's alright, Long Wanyan had plenty of energy, and after traversing almost half the distance of the secret realm, Xiao Yu and his group finally arrived near the area of ​​the ancient tree that reached the heavens.

As soon as they approached, a bone-chilling cold current surged forth. Xiao Yu raised an eyebrow. His translucent flying sword, Yue Li, bathed in this cold air, actually emitted a sense of blood connection and jubilation.

The chill collided with the rolling waves of flames behind them, and in just one exchange, the towering flames weakened and their intensity diminished, but their speed remained undiminished, still relentlessly pursuing them.

The burly man pursed his lips, his dark face and neck already flushed red. His pace slowed, and his tiger-like eyes glanced at his sister in his arms, a surge of anxiety rising within him.

With his toes sinking deep into the soft, scorched earth, his gaze suddenly sharpened as he clearly saw a distinct dividing line in the area not far away.

The group of people he was fleeing were standing on scorched earth, soft and mixed with sparks, which ignited almost instantly when flames struck.

In the distance, a sliver of white light reflected from the flickering firelight, a clear line of light—that was frozen earth, imbued with cold, its ability to withstand burning far surpassing the scorched earth beneath our feet.

In other words, stepping into that frozen area is very likely to be safe.

The warrior gradually lost his strength; his speed, which was originally equivalent to ten steps in one, was now reduced to only six or seven steps.

Gradually, Long Wanyan, who had been lagging behind, began to catch up with him.

Peng!

After a scream.

As the flames rose, the fire actually warmed up a bit.

It was probably that the fellow martial artist, seeing hope within reach, felt a surge of joy and uncomfortably released the breath that had welled up within him.

If they slowed down, they would be engulfed by the flames.

He actually died right in front of his own house; it's laughable.

But the warrior couldn't laugh now. He was in a similar situation. Although he hadn't lost his breath, he figured he wouldn't make it to that frozen area.

It doesn't matter if he dies here, but we absolutely cannot let it implicate the youngest sister who was caught up in the chaos in the square and forced to come in with him.

The raging flames licked his back, and with the slightest mistake, he would be engulfed by the flames. Thinking of this, the warrior's eyes hardened, and he bit his lip so hard that a trickle of blood appeared.

"Brother..." The girl in his arms said worriedly when she saw his appearance.

The girl's delicate cry finally touched the man's heartstrings, and he grinned, revealing his bloodstained teeth.

If you want to kill or torture him, target him alone; even if you have to make him pay with his life later, that's fine too.

But please... she can't die here.

And so, in the girl's increasingly wide pupils, the martial man mustered his last bit of strength and threw a fist of martial energy at Long Wanyan, who was to his left front side.

Peng!

Long Wanyan sensed something and dodged to the side in advance, but at that moment, the martial arts man stomped his foot deep into the soft soil and took a big step.

A large cloud of soft dust swept over and splashed onto Long Wanyan.

Long Wanyan's body stiffened as the incoming flames instantly engulfed Xiao Yu and the other two. Taking advantage of the moment the flames consumed them, the martial arts man took a breath of fresh air, and at the same time, he felt a pain in his back as the flames burned his back.

But with that, he used his strength to leap and crash into the snow-white frozen ground.